“A man with one theory is lost. He must have several, four, many! " —Bertold Brecht

La Bohème

Dec 5, 2006 9:13 pm
If anyone has Sirius satellite radio you need to tune in to channel 85 right now!

I have never enjoyed La Bohème. I have heard it dozens of times and always found it somewhere between insipid and boring. But tonight the Met is broadcasting live their performance with Placido Domingo conducting Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. Now I can finally understand what people find enjoyable about this opera. This is by far the most inspired performance I have ever heard. It is all the more exciting as this is the only performance Netrebko and Villazón will be doing at the Met this year.

So if you have Sirius, tune in now. If you don’t have it, it might very well be worth the fee just for the Met broadcasts. They have been doing about 3 or 4 live broadcasts each week. Plus you can hear old classic Met broadcasts from 6 am to around midnight every day. A bargain!

It was the strangest thing. My wife and I have listened to hundreds (thousands?) of broadcasts over the years, but we definitely had the sense that we were hearing an event that was amazing, unique and historic. And a peculiar feeling that everybody knew it.